Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping are seen in this file photo. (AA)
Spengler, Asia Times: China’s $3.6 bn bailout insulates Turkey from US
Beijing’s biggest support package ever for President Erdogan arrives at a critical time
Despite the US threat to “obliterate and destroy” Turkey’s economy, the Turkish lira and Turkish interest rates barely have budged in the past week (Turkish stocks, especially banks, are down sharply, in part due to the US criminal charges against Halkbank for aiding Iran sanctions violations). That is remarkable given the fragility of Turkey’s currency earlier in 2019. Between February and May, the Turkish lira fell from 5.2 to the US dollar to 6.2 in response to US sanctions, before recovering to 5.88 to the dollar today. The Turkish central bank leaned on Turkish banks to refrain from offering liquidity to short-sellers, but Turkish money markets remained orderly.
What changed is China. Turkish President Erdogan’s insolence in the face of American threats brings to mind B’rer Rabbit’s imprecation to B’rer Fox: “Please don’t throw me in the briar patch.” The relevant foliage in this case is bamboo.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Turkey is cheap to buy right now, and China is taking advantage of it. But the best part of this article is not the Chinese bail-out, but on the changing demographics of Turkey ....
.... Erdogan’s long-term problem is that there aren’t enough Turks in Turkey. Turkey’s Kurdish citizens continue to have three or four children while ethnic Turks have fewer than two. By the early 2040s, most of Turkey’s young people will come from Kurdish-speaking homes.
President Erdogan is a nationalist, and for someone like him this changing demographic is frightening, and I am willing to wager that it is influencing many of his recent decisions. Needless to say. The above Asia Times post is a must read.
4 comments:
First:
"China built the Great Wall to repel Turkic invasions" , wrong !
China built the great wall to stop mongol invasions . There is a difference.
Second :
Middle eastern people don't think in this western view point about ethnicity and state.
States are pan ethnic , the primary mode of power control are ideology (Iran - Shia ,Syria-Ba'ath,KSA - Salfi Wahhabi etc)
Most likely Erdogan and co. want to build a new ottoman empire , which why they are called in the mideast (the new ottoman ) .
With changing demographic , the country will move to ideological (most likely a form of pan islamism like Iran but sunni ) .
Ethnic state cant survive in the mideast ( too much diversity) .
Spengler is great.
Erdogan as the titular head of haram for USA Russia and now China is something i can easily imagine.
I read an analysis of Lebanon that might not have been the best, but here goes.
Lebanon at independence was roughly 50/50 Christian/ Muslim. But at the time of the civil war the Muslim percentage had grown. The Shia were poor and the writer opined they had nothing to do except sex.
Well the Kurds are poor. They are not in the corridors of power. They are disenfranchised. Beside occasionally killing a few asshole Turks it appears they have been fucking, a lot.
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